Welcome to Blue Poppy Publishing, Joni Dee
Author of “And The Wolf Shall Dwell”
It really is pretty mind-blowing the speed with which Blue Poppy has grown in less than a year. OK, look, it’s not going to threaten Penguin any time soon, but we have now got three confirmed authors all publishing books this year.
The latest author to the fold is Joni Dee, whose thriller “And The Wolf Shall Dwell” already looks set to outsell Oliver J Tooley on launch based on pre-orders alone.
That said, we want to give more people the chance to get a pre-order in before the launch date which has not be set yet. To that end, please check out his website jondbooks.com/ and sign up for updates.
I thought perhaps, it might be time to begin sharing my self publishing story from the very beginning. I have made so VERY many mistakes on my journey. I probably still haven’t made them all, but the lessons I have learned could be worth a lot to anyone starting out. Besides, I have a terrible memory, so it wouldn’t hurt to have a handy reference guide for myself.
So, right back to the very beginning. Before I thought of publishing anything. Right back to when mobile phones were the size of small bricks and the earliest days of the internet.
Oh, I will warn you now. This is likely to turn into as much an autobiography as an instruction manual. Later, I may distill it down to a ten point action plan, but for now, it is probably gonna ramble. Sorry.
Writing.
Why write? Some people write purely for themselves and a few close friends; some write for pleasure; a few have future publishing in their sights. I started, largely for the first two reasons, by writing a website.
I was researching my family tree with my new home computer. A Tiny PC with a Pentium II™ processor and dial-up connection. I searched for information about my grandfather, Frank Kingdon-Ward, who was a ‘famous’ plant collector. There wasn’t a single hit on the search engine. There were ten thousand hits for Pamela Anderson. I thought that was a bad thing.
I found a biography (whatever you do, don’t pay more than a few quid for it. It’s not that great) about my grandfather written by Charles Lyte. I remember him coming to our flat in London and interviewing my ‘dizzy’ mother. He didn’t get much from her, but he did borrow a lot of papers which he subsequently gave to Kew Botanic Gardens (with my mother’s consent, although now she denies it) Using a WYSIWYG web-builder I made my very first Geocities website. It was a bit rubbish, but little did I know my publishing career had begun.
Once you start, you can’t stop.
Like a lot of things, writing can be a bit like a drug. You get hits on your website from people who care about your subject matter. People who know more than you about your subject matter actually send you corrections. If you are sincere in your objectives, then you don’t mind. You don’t mind people correcting your spelling, grammar, facts, or style. It all helps.
Another aspect of my website, unrelated to the Frank Kingdon-Ward biography, suddenly started getting huge numbers of hits and when I started to monetize it with advertising, it began to pay my hosting fees. I was a “professional writer”! Well, sort of.
It was around this time that I started to wonder if I might one day be able to make a living as a writer. Even as I write this, I am still wondering that, so please; if you are seeking a get rich quick scheme, then writing professionally may not be for you.
“The Great Explorers” Robin Hanbury-Tenison (Thames and Hudson)
But before I was able to finish writing my first novel, I was commissioned to write an article for a book called “The Great Explorers” by Robin Hanbury-Tenison; published by Thames and Hudson.
I was asked to write one thousand two hundred words and was paid my first ever fee for writing. It was a rather exciting moment.
Interestingly, I recently read some statistics and facts that strongly suggest that writing non-fiction is a better way to make money as a writer. Indeed, the evidence of my own experiences supports that so far, albeit from a very small statistical sample. I made eight pence per word for that article. I wish I could say the same for my self published stories.
‘Sealskin’ is a wonderful elaboration of one of the ancient legends of the selkies, seals which come onto land and shed their skins to become like humans. In the story, a fisherman hides one of the skins preventing the selkie from returning to the sea. It also starts with a terrible act, of which more later. (may contain spoilers)*
The story is set in a historical period which is not fully defined but is certainly before the steam age. The fishing village in the Hebrides, is close knit with everyone knowing everyone else’s business. Although they look after each other, and make sure those who suffer misfortune are not left by the wayside, there is still a certain rivalry and gossip is rife. The main occupation is fishing, and the sea claims the lives of men as readily as any other cause.
(While reading it, I visualised the characters in the Ealing Comedy “Whiskey Galore”)
I particularly enjoyed the way Su paints a picture of the village’s social interactions, and the dynamic of riding out a scandal by parading in full view; calmly deflecting accusations. Tight knit communities can be wonderful places to live when you feel included, but can be terrifying if you become ostracised.
The ending was particularly satisfying for me. As it approached, just like I always do, I attempted to second guess what would happen. I could only see two possible scenarios and neither of them was really going to please me. It was therefore a blessed relief when Su found a third way that made much more sense than either of my ideas.
The book has received many five star reviews already and I am not going to buck that trend, however, one reviewer was highly critical. I didn’t want to comment on her review and end up with a long running argument, but I am going to address it below. But warning, it may contain a few mild spoilers.
Potential spoilers.
I have tried to keep this from being a spoiler, but if you are the sort of person for whom any clue at all to the story is a spoiler, then by all means stop reading here.
* I said the story begins with a terrible act. An appalling act of violation of a female, which in the modern world is rightly considered unforgivable. The reviewer felt that the act was subsequently glossed over in the story, and that the perpetrator is subsequently portrayed as a hero. As a man, I hesitate to make any excuse, but I feel here that three points are worthy of keeping in mind.
The author herself is a woman. OK, I know that proves nothing, but I feel the next points establish she does not make light of the subject.
The selkies had been performing a mating dance, and there was a certain magic in the air which made the perpetrator not fully aware of, or in control of his actions. We are not talking about being drunk, or lustful, but being possessed by selkie magic.
He feels enormous guilt for his actions throughout the book, despite the fact that it is strongly implied that he is not in control of his actions. The selkie has magical powers, and can affect a human’s behaviour, as shown later in the book.
The setting is historical, and as such, it is not acceptable to make judgements about morality based on modern norms. Juliet was thirteen when Romeo made his advances to her, King David has many wives and concubines. This story is an elaboration of a folk myth and as such stays faithful to the basis of the original.
Ultimately, every reader must take what they wish from the story, but in my opinion, it would be a shame to dismiss it because of a lack of understanding of the magical elements.
Blue Poppy is already reeling from the news that Ben Blake, a well established self-publishing author with six titles already in print, wanted to publish his next two novels, “Black Lord of Eagles”, and “Fanged Fish” through us; but now we have been approached by an author from London who had got 750 pre-orders of his first novel before the company supposedly publishing him pulled the rug.
We don’t want to give too much away but it goes without saying we could not pass up the chance to publish someone who has already created so much interest in their first book.
It may mean we have to transform from an imprint, to an actual company with some sort of legal status. That’s going to mean proper accounts and such like. Much to do.
(While reading it, I visualised the characters in the Ealing Comedy “Whiskey Galore”)
